


I Regret It

by ZenyZootSuit



Series: The Rubble and Our Sins [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: BAMF Armitage Hux, Bottom Kylo Ren, Canon Compliant, Dry Humor, Enemies to Lovers, Hate Sex, Lovers To Enemies, M/M, Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Passive-aggression, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rough Sex, Sarcasm, Science, Spoilers, Starkiller Base, Top Armitage Hux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:21:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22471756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZenyZootSuit/pseuds/ZenyZootSuit
Summary: Professionally, they hated each other, which made for an interesting private life. A snippet about Hux and Kylo's brief relationship.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: The Rubble and Our Sins [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616809
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	I Regret It

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as a stand alone, but brief references are made to what happened in Over My Dead Body. Enjoy! :)

*******

Professionally, they hated each other.

The first time Kylo Ren met then-Lieutenant General Armitage Hux, the man had looked at him with a frustrated glower and hissed, “So this is to be my co-commander?”

Lieutenant Mitaka had confirmed that it was in fact true and the Lieutenant General sneered before leaning into Kylo’s space, face almost pressed against the front of Kylo’s helmet.

“Stay out of my way.”

And he was gone, sweeping away in his frankly ridiculous (in Kylo’s completely unprofessional opinion) greatcoat before Kylo could even process that the Lieutenant General had not felt an ounce of fear.

Well, that couldn’t be allowed to stand.

Kylo went out of his way to assert his position within the First Order, effectively getting in the Lieutenant General’s way as often as possible. He became fond of shows of force, basking in the anger and violence Snoke said was supposed to advance his training.

(Kylo never really understood how tearing up control rooms would make him more powerful, but he was only a student, wasn’t he?)

In response, Hux went out of his way to limit Kylo’s movements as much as possible which infuriated the Knight to no end.

After being denied the freedom to leave the Finalizer, Kylo stormed onto the bridge and got right in the Lieutenant General’s face.

“I do not answer to you.”

Hux didn’t flinch. “Except for the part where you do. Indirectly, but as long as I have the power to control where my transporters go and when, _you do_.”

Kylo snarled. “I answer to the Supreme Leader and the Supreme Leader alone. Stay out of my way.”

“Only if you stay out of mine.”

Kylo seethed under his helmet. _Hands off the high command_ , Snoke had told him. _Let their power struggle play out on its own_. But Kylo just couldn’t resist brushing Hux’s throat none to gently with the Force, eliciting a sharp cough from the man. Warning delivered, Kylo turned to leave, only to be hit in the back of the helmet with a blaster bolt. The metal deflected the shot, but the Force was enough to make him stumble, a startled sound escaping his throat.

Kylo turned back around to see the Lieutenant General standing there, a smoking blaster in his hand, staring him down.

Hmm.

Equal parts of Kylo were enraged and vaguely impressed. For someone who generally had such a loud mind, projecting his moods and thoughts all over the blasted ship, Hux had done that with surprisingly little thought. Little enough to get it past Kylo’s ever-watchful eye. That was…interesting.

For a time after that the two functioned with grudging tolerance. Hux didn’t bother Kylo and, for the most part, Kylo didn’t bother Hux.

No one was surprised when that unstable truce fell apart.

“If they didn’t want to be used for target practice, then they should have stayed out of my training rooms.”

Hux stared at him, astounded, four dead Stormtroopers smoking behind him. “Is that how it is now? We can all just kill whoever we want? Does that mean I can poison your coffee tomorrow morning? Because if so, I would recommend you get your affairs in order.”

“Are you threatening me, Lieutenant General?” Kylo’s modulator kept his voice steady and even, though under his helmet he smirked. In the face of what had been a truly awful week this was, in fact, hilarious.

Hux smiled humorlessly. “I’m simply trying to understand the new order of things. If it is not the case that we can all go around killing whoever we want, then I would like to remind you of the penalty for killing a fellow soldier as well as the extensive funds and time that go into training _each. Stormtrooper.”_

“I’m not the same kind of soldier as you. Your rules don’t apply to me. Besides, Lieutenant General, you would know all about breaking those rules, wouldn’t you? Unless the former holders of the last three ranks you climbed were ever found to have legitimate causes of death?”

Kylo was of course referring to the rumors that Hux had killed his way up the ladder to get where he was at such a young age. Hux clearly found those rumors, be they true or not, preferable to the ones implying he had slept his way to his current position, as he only snorted before moving to stand directly in front of Kylo.

“If you’ve got something to report, then report it. In fact, if anyone has something to report—” he glanced briefly around at the audience that had gathered. “—you are welcome to report it. But if not, I would also like to recommend that Lord Ren cease with his baseless threats, take off that ridiculous bucket, and look me in the face like a man.”

Kylo stayed silent for a long moment, for effect. “No.” And he threw the Lieutenant General clear across the room and out the door with the Force.

Faint, bitten-off chuckles circulated the room and Kylo grinned under his helmet.

_Kylo Ren: 1, Lieutenant General Hux: 0_

From that point on, it became increasingly obvious to not only both of them, but also everyone else on the ship that this was going to end in one of two ways: one was going to end up killing the other or they would end up fucking.

Kylo had recoiled at Snoke’s gleeful insinuation of the latter and had left the meeting intending to put his lightsaber through the Lieutenant General’s liver that very evening no matter what Snoke’s commands were.

What happened instead was…not entirely clear.

Kylo had broken into the General’s chambers and scared the hell out of the man’s cat (which apparently pissed Hux off more than anything Kylo had ever done before), with the subsequent argument over private spaces and conspiracy to commit murder devolving into a screaming match which led to Kylo ripping his helmet off to properly shout at the other man because his modulator’s volume just _did not_ get loud enough—

The argument abruptly stopped when Kylo realized Hux had stopped yelling at him and was instead just staring at his face.

Kylo blinked, breathing heavily. “What?” he hissed.

Hux shook his head slowly, cracking an ironic smile. “Fuck,” he breathed before his hand was around the back of Kylo’s neck and he was smashing their lips together. Kylo was hit with such an intense bloom of heat in his gut that he was not particularly inclined to stop him, never mind that they were making the rumors true.

It had been such a very long time.

From there, Kylo was particularly unsure about how he had come to be the one bent of the Lieutenant General’s desk, pants around his knees and the rest of his robes hiked up around his waist. Hux was not gentle and Kylo loved every second of it.

It became something of a regular thing after that. Once or twice a week, Kylo would break into Hux’s quarters and the Lieutenant General would bend him over the desk or push him face down on the bed and fuck him senseless. Since they were taking all their frustrations with each other out in bed, their professional relationship improved.

(Nothing happened on Hux’s ship without him knowing about it, the man would later tell him. He knew exactly how much money changed hands over the causes of their bettering moods down to the penny, and had collected approximately 30% of the profits himself as a sort of tax for not having the gamblers executed on the spot for gossiping about high command. Kylo laughed at him until Hux threw him out.)

The longer their…arrangement went on, the more things started to change.

The fucking was still rough, but not angry. Hux no longer threw him out right after sex and Kylo no longer wanted to leave straight away. As such, they had gotten to talking every now and again. Still, Kylo never stayed the night. He always got up and left before Hux even shut his eyes.

That is until one night, when Hux had pressed Kylo flat on his back on the bed and opened him up slowly. Four fingers deep, he had brushed tantalizingly over the Knight’s prostate until he nearly begged for mercy, then fucked him until he did. Kylo couldn’t even be too upset that he had been reduced to begging, his face buried in Hux’s neck as his nails scratched welts down the soldier’s back. He bottomed because he wanted to, and he knew Hux knew well enough that Kylo would just kill him if he pushed the Knight too far, whatever Snoke’s orders may be, and spreading it around that Kylo enjoyed taking it up the ass would definitely be the textbook definition of too far.

Kylo even said so, still sprawled on Hux’s bed completely nude, while the soldier discarded the condom, pulled his boxers back on and rummaged around in the bedside drawer. (They always used a condom due to certain past experiences Kylo had no intention of repeating. He never did tell Hux what those were. It had never even come up, as the soldier had never asked to stop using condoms, so why would Kylo willingly bring up his worst memory with someone he didn’t even like?)

“You seem to think public confirmation of this arrangement would enhance my reputation in some way.”

Kylo looked over at him. “Wouldn’t it.”

Hux sat back on the bed, having found what he was looking for: a cigarette. He lit it and took a drag of it before answering. “It would not.”

“And why not? You’re fucking the leader of the Knights of Ren. Why wouldn’t you want everyone to know that?”

Hux blew a stream of smoke in his face. “Because no one would believe it was me doing the fucking.”

Kylo looked back up at the ceiling. He supposed that was fair. It wasn’t at all that Hux was thin or small. He’d been in military training since he was a small child, he was almost as in shape as Kylo was (something the Knight had been surprised to discover after an accident in the ship’s hyperdrive. All available personnel were ordered to respond to the, frankly, disaster zone and Kylo had had the pleasure of watching Hux carry injured soldiers in a fireman’s carry like they weighed nothing at all.) It was just that Kylo had genetics on his side when it came to height and bulk. He turned on his side to face the Lieutenant General, eyes fixed on the man’s dog tags settled enticingly between his pecs.

“Is there something wrong with being on the receiving end?” Kylo baited.

Hux ignored it, enjoying his cigarette. “Don’t be combative.”

Kylo snorted and smirked, before frowning. Something had been ever so slightly off… “Combative,” he repeated.

Hux glanced at him, an eyebrow raised. “Combative? Combative.”

Kylo eyed him curiously, surprised at the slightly off vowel pronunciation. “…Is Basic not your first language?”

Hux shook his head. “It is not.”

Kylo blinked at him. “…Huh.”

“What tipped you off?”

“Vowels.”

“Which one?”

“The a.”

Hux swore as he finished his cigarette. “Fuck, I’ve been worked on that for years.”

Kylo propped himself up on an elbow. “Wait, what does your actual accent sound like?”

“I mean, this is proper pronunciation of Galactic Basic, so this is my ‘real’ accent.”

“Your native one then.”

“It sounds like this,” Hux said in a distinctly not-Basic accent and Kylo stared.

“Is that why you fake that pompous Core-World Basic accent then? To cover up your real one?”

“What do you mean ‘pompous’?!”

Their little argument devolved quickly into another round of sex, with Kylo sitting astride Hux’s hips and riding him until his thighs burned.

Afterwards, if Kylo’s head rested briefly on Hux’s shoulder as they caught their breath. By then he didn’t care and the soldier didn’t stop him.

“Ren,” Hux said when Kylo went to get up.

“Hmm?”

“Stay the night.”

Kylo did.

After that…well, Kylo wouldn’t describe their relationship as _affectionate_ , but…

But maybe when Hux kissed him, he was no longer actively trying to draw blood. Maybe Kylo preferred it that way.

Maybe he enjoyed wrapping his arms around the Lieutenant General’s neck and making out with him on the couch while not occasionally brushing a Force grab along Hux’s neck to remind him that Kylo could kill him at any moment.

Maybe Hux asked him to stay the night more often than not. Maybe they actually grew to…if not _enjoy_ each other’s company, then at least tolerate it.

Maybe when Kylo’s typhoon of emotions threatened to overwhelm him, he would focus on the barely-there hint of an accented vowel in the Lieutenant General’s voice.

What of it?

But, in keeping with history, good things never stayed in Kylo’s life for very long.

_And the last good day passed without a soul noticing it go by,_ Kylo had once read. Indeed, he didn’t notice.

The night before everything broke down, Kylo had been laying in Hux’s bed after sex as the Lieutenant General smoked and told him about the new project he was working on.

“The design is just about finished. We should be able to start construction very soon.”

“A new Death Star,” Kylo mused.

“Yes, but without all the flaws.”

“Should you really be telling me about this?”

“Likely not,” the Lieutenant General said. “But you’ll hear about it sooner or later. I’ll probably put you and your priests on the security board.”

“ _Knights_ ,” Kylo hissed, but his tone held no barbs as he reached over and snatched the cigarette from between Hux’s fingers.

“Since when do you smoke?” Hux snapped, making no real effort to get it back. He laughed as Kylo coughed after one inhale. “Since never, apparently.”

Kylo gave him back his cigarette. “So you’ve been supervising the design.”

“Did you listen to a word I just said? I’ve been doing the designing.”

Kylo snorted. “What place does a career military man have in the design of such a complex weapon?”

Hux stared at him like he had antlers growing out of his ears. “I’m a PhD astrophysicist.”

Kylo stared right back at him. “I’m sorry, you’re a _what_ now?”

Hux rolled his eyes. “And here I was starting to get a slightly less negative opinion of you. Yes! I’m an astrophysicist. I wrote my thesis on the mechanics and energy dynamics of supernovas and potential technological applications, which is why I’m a lead on this project. How have you been sleeping with me for over a standard year and you didn’t know that?”

Kylo huffed. “For the same reason you didn’t know I have Jedi training.”

Hux shook his head. “The Force is wasted on the wrong people.”

“How so?” Kylo asked, swinging his leg over Hux’s hips to sit on his lap.

Hux rested his hands on his waist and looked up at him with a smile playing on his lips. “The Force or whatever, everything I’ve seen you do, it’s just physics. You are somehow able to readily manipulate the laws of classical and quantum mechanics. And if you took the time to study and understand how these things work one their own instead of just… _feeling it out_ or whatever the fuck it is that you do—“ he paused and brushed the hair out of Kylo’s face, a move that made the Sith blush in its uncharacteristic gentleness. “—you’d be unstoppable.”

Kylo kissed him. “Teach me physics then,” he said when he broke off for a breath.

Hux snorted. “And what exactly is your highest level of education?”

It was then that it occurred to Kylo that he had not had any formal education since before he began his Jedi training. Since he was probably about nine or ten.

Hux raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you had much, but I am surprised by that.” The soldier kissed him again. “But, if you want to learn, I will teach you. Even if I can’t teach you the math, I can at least teach you the concepts.”

Kylo crowded Hux down flat on his back on the bed and rested his hands on either side of his head. “It’s a date,” he said, pronouncing the ’t’ sharply. “Let me stay the night.”

“No. We both have an early meeting tomorrow with the Supreme Leader.”

“Ahh.” It wasn’t that he had forgotten, he just hadn’t exactly wanted to remember. “Remember the shielding I taught you.”

“Of course, now get out.”

Kylo kissed him firmly once more. “You love it.”

As he got up and dressed, he heard a barely formed thought cross the Lieutenant General’s mind. _Maybe I do._

The last good day came and went, and in the morning everything went to shit.

Kylo could feel the Lieutenant General’s fury permeating the room before he even walked in.

“Could you please repeat that, Supreme Leader?”

_“You heard me perfectly, General. Lord Ren will be overseeing the project from here on out. You will be promoted and given full command of the Finalizer, which will be needed elsewhere for the time being. Does this not satisfy you?”_

Kylo nearly heard the… _General_ bite through his cheek. “With all due respect, sir, this project is the combined effort of myself and three other astrophysicists each with a different area of specialization, four nuclear physicists, _fifteen_ physicists specializing in thermodynamics, and an entire legion of engineers.”

_“And?”_

“And, sir, you have just placed a man with no formal education _at all_ in charge of the largest nuclear reactor ever to be built. _One_ poor decision, one missed warning sign, and it will explode in our faces and years of work and billions of credits and men will have been wasted. This project needs to be under the supervision of _scientists_ , not uneducated Force users!”

Before Kylo had half a chance to be offended by that, the General snapped to attention in a way that was obviously not his own doing.

_“You will do as I say, General. For the good of the First Order.”_

And with that the hologram of Snoke disappeared and the General fell to the ground, coughing harshly.

Kylo had no idea what to do. “Hux—“ he started to say, but the General angrily brushed him off and stormed out the door.

It was a long time before he saw the General again. By the time he did, their relatio—arrangement had been thoroughly poisoned. The General was cordial enough with him, if cold and a bit short. But he kept the Knight at arm’s length as he attempted to get his job back.

It was not long before the disappointment of losing whatever it was they had, the pressure of managing something he was sorely under-qualified for and bitter, _bitter_ anger made Kylo hate him as well, which in turn made Hux despise him every bit as much as he used to.

Kylo wondered sometimes if it could have been salvaged, whatever had been developing. If he had implored Snoke to reconsider (he would likely have been choked out as punishment, but at least he would have tried), if he had found some way to try and reinstate the General...

As his old Jedi master used to say, shoulda coulda woulda.

In the end, Hux did manage to resume overseeing the construction of Starkiller when Kylo’s talents were proven to be better suited to hunting Skywalker. A tiny part of Kylo had wondered if maybe, just maybe, they could go back to the way things were. He went to the General’s quarters that night, his helmet held in his hand. The General took one look at him and laughed.

“What the hell do you want?”

Kylo was a bit taken aback at the General’s mirth. “I—“

“Well? I don’t have all day. Fixing all the shit you let lapse is quite time-consuming.”

“I—“

“Spit it out, Ren, or did you forget how to talk to someone without that bucket for protection?”

Burned, Kylo hissed “Forget it” and left, thoroughly ignoring the bitten off _wait_ emanating from the General through the Force as he did.

Years later, Kylo watched the General’s powerful speech and the launch of their new weapon.

He wished he understood how it worked.

Later, as the thing imploded beneath his feet, he wondered if they had only kept scientists in charge with the Knights of Ren on security as had been Hux’s plan, if this could have been avoided.

He had just excepted he would die there, when he heard a voice barking, “Ren? Ren! Kylo!”

He didn’t think he’d ever heard the General call him by his first name before.

Then he was being hoisted up in a fireman’s carry as his vision swam and faded to black. The next thing he was aware of was being dumped unceremoniously on the floor of a transporter and descended upon by frantic medics. Through their panicked movements as they tried to stave the blood loss from his bowcaster wound, he glimpsed none other than General Hux, hair rumpled and covered in soot, blood, and snow. The man nodded at him, lips pressed in a tight line, and he held up Kylo’s lightsaber before disappearing from view.

_Oh_ , Kylo thought as he started to lose consciousness. _Thank you._

He could feel the General smiling through the Force.

By the time Kylo awoke in the med bay of the _Finalizer,_ Hux had already departed for Snoke’s ship.

The General was never the same after that.

Kylo wasn’t entirely sure what Snoke had done to him, but it changed him. He had lost his edge, his wit. Before, Hux would grin at him and Kylo would see every inch of the mad dog Snoke said he was. Now...

Now he was a shell of that. Rattled to the core by whatever Snoke had done, demoted and bitterly grasping for what he had before and losing ground with every move he made.

_You’re better than this,_ Kylo wanted to scream at him. _You can do better than this._

He assaulted him instead, nearly choking the life out of him until Hux pledged his allegiance in the wake of the Supreme Leader’s death. 

Even then, Hux’s soft “that’s enough” and the slight accent it was said in had been the only thing to calm him down from the blind panic he had experienced upon seeing Luke Skywalker on Crait. And he had thrown him into a wall for it.

Only in retrospect would Kylo understand that Hux had not truly hated him until that moment.

Mutiny. That’s what he heard echoing around the abandoned Resistance base, what he felt. All emanating from the General.

The unsettling part was that Kylo knew he could pull it off. He had the support of the troops, the charisma, the brains, and the brutality to do it. At least, the old Hux did. The new one…well.

Then everything went to shit before Kylo could even blink and the Emperor was alive and Hux was demoted further, now under the command of Allegiant General Pryde, whom Kylo did not trust as far as he could spit.

“Supreme Leader,” high command greeted him as he walked into their meeting late, adrenaline from his most recent mission making his blood run hot.

Part of him craved violence. An entirely different part craved Hux’s smartass comments about Ren’s poor education and did he never learn how to tell time? He wanted to know what Sn—Palpatine had done to him, to turn the self-assured, strong General into…whoever that was sitting there at the table. The man who had once been able to throw Kylo’s dead weight over his shoulder now looked like he wouldn’t be able to pick up a briefcase. He looked sick. Maybe he was. They hadn’t spoken in many months.

He bid Hux stay behind after the meeting concluded in a burst of sentimentality.

“Are you well?” he asked, modulator sounding hollow in his ears.

Hux scoffed and for the briefest of moments, Kylo glimpsed his old lover. “If you’re going to patronize me, Ren, take that blasted bucket off your head first.”

Kylo humored him. Shaking out his hair, he regarded the other man carefully. “Are you well?” he repeated.

Hux’s expression was unreadable. “I wasn’t aware you cared, Supreme Leader.”

“Well, are you?”

“Do I look well?” Hux hissed.

Kylo’s face hardened. “What happened to you? You’re better than this. At least you _were_. What happened?”

Hux sneered at him. _“You did.”_

Kylo had no words as the former General stalked out of the room without being dismissed.

Days later, Kylo might not have even been on the ship, but he heard Hux say it nonetheless.

“I don’t care who wins,” Hux said to the rebels after committing high treason. “I just want Kylo Ren to lose.”

In all honesty, Kylo’s presence in the First Order had ruined Hux’s career, his life. So that was…fair.

Not long after, Kylo felt him die, shot in the chest by the Allegiant General who wasn’t half the man Armitage Hux was, if you asked Kylo, for all they hated each other.

Kylo regretted it. In the end, he regretted it.

**El Fin**

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I needed some highly educated scientist!Hux in my life. Also I have never been a fan of the widespread fandom interpretation of Hux as weak because of his smaller stature. My military friend is tiny and yet she can pick me up and throw me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes so BAMF!Hux it is! Thanks so much for reading! Let me know what you think :3


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